In a Sea of Tech Talent, Companies Can’t Find the Workers They Want
Kanebridge News
    HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $1,736,779 (+1.11%)       Melbourne $1,057,340 (+0.67%)       Brisbane $1,151,226 (+0.91%)       Adelaide $1,015,559 (-0.31%)       Perth $1,005,131 (+1.51%)       Hobart $796,466 (+0.04%)       Darwin $882,186 (+3.28%)       Canberra $964,108 (-3.09%)       National $1,143,418 (+0.66%)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $795,054 (-0.05%)       Melbourne $519,602 (-0.44%)       Brisbane $725,709 (+0.28%)       Adelaide $576,859 (+0.27%)       Perth $556,364 (-0.30%)       Hobart $539,090 (+1.17%)       Darwin $431,601 (-3.46%)       Canberra $496,653 (+1.87%)       National $602,168 (+0.09%)                HOUSES FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 12,039 (+174)       Melbourne 12,993 (-35)       Brisbane 7,289 (-39)       Adelaide 2,335 (-40)       Perth 5,251 (-17)       Hobart 827 (+11)       Darwin 144 (+1)       Canberra 937 (+12)       National 41,815 (+67)                UNITS FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 9,101 (+9)       Melbourne 6,848 (-50)       Brisbane 1,320 (-17)       Adelaide 358 (+2)       Perth 1,221 (-32)       Hobart 171 (+4)       Darwin 244 (+4)       Canberra 1,120 (+13)       National 20,383 (-67)                HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $800 ($0)       Melbourne $580 ($0)       Brisbane $670 ($0)       Adelaide $630 (-$10)       Perth $700 ($0)       Hobart $600 (+$8)       Darwin $750 ($0)       Canberra $690 (-$10)       National $685 (-$2)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $750 (-$10)       Melbourne $599 (-$1)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $535 (+$8)       Perth $650 (-$25)       Hobart $460 (-$5)       Darwin $595 (-$5)       Canberra $570 ($0)       National $612 (-$6)                HOUSES FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 5,374 (-74)       Melbourne 7,632 (-176)       Brisbane 3,997 (+12)       Adelaide 1,498 (-8)       Perth 2,385 (-46)       Hobart 156 (-18)       Darwin 100 (+7)       Canberra 417 (-34)       National 21,559 (-337)                UNITS FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 7,991 (-97)       Melbourne 5,949 (-41)       Brisbane 1,977 (-78)       Adelaide 411 (-13)       Perth 729 (-25)       Hobart 70 (-7)       Darwin 149 (+12)       Canberra 680 (-44)       National 17,956 (-293)                HOUSE ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 2.40% (↓)       Melbourne 2.85% (↓)       Brisbane 3.03% (↓)       Adelaide 3.23% (↓)       Perth 3.62% (↓)     Hobart 3.92% (↑)        Darwin 4.42% (↓)     Canberra 3.72% (↑)        National 3.11% (↓)            UNIT ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 4.91% (↓)     Melbourne 5.99% (↑)        Brisbane 4.66% (↓)     Adelaide 4.82% (↑)        Perth 6.08% (↓)       Hobart 4.44% (↓)     Darwin 7.17% (↑)        Canberra 5.97% (↓)       National 5.28% (↓)            HOUSE RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.0% (↑)      Melbourne 1.9% (↑)      Brisbane 1.4% (↑)      Adelaide 1.3% (↑)      Perth 1.2% (↑)      Hobart 1.0% (↑)      Darwin 1.6% (↑)      Canberra 2.7% (↑)      National 1.7% (↑)             UNIT RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.4% (↑)      Melbourne 3.8% (↑)      Brisbane 2.0% (↑)      Adelaide 1.1% (↑)      Perth 0.9% (↑)      Hobart 1.4% (↑)      Darwin 2.8% (↑)      Canberra 2.9% (↑)      National 2.2% (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL HOUSES AND TREND       Sydney 26.8 (↑)        Melbourne 27.0 (↓)       Brisbane 29.6 (↓)       Adelaide 24.7 (↓)       Perth 34.3 (↓)       Hobart 27.7 (↓)       Darwin 25.7 (↓)       Canberra 26.9 (↓)       National 27.8 (↓)            AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL UNITS AND TREND         Sydney 27.1 (↓)       Melbourne 27.4 (↓)       Brisbane 29.3 (↓)       Adelaide 26.8 (↓)       Perth 34.5 (↓)       Hobart 26.7 (↓)     Darwin 31.3 (↑)      Canberra 39.7 (↑)        National 30.4 (↓)           
Share Button

In a Sea of Tech Talent, Companies Can’t Find the Workers They Want

A divide has opened in the tech job market between those with artificial-intelligence skills and everyone else.

By CALLUM BORCHERS
Thu, Oct 2, 2025 3:55pmGrey Clock 4 min

There has rarely, if ever, been so much tech talent available in the job market. Yet many tech companies say good help is hard to find.

What gives?

U.S. colleges more than doubled the number of computer-science degrees awarded from 2013 to 2022, according to federal data. Then came round after round of layoffs at Google, Meta, Amazon, and others.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts businesses will employ 6% fewer computer programmers in 2034 than they did last year.

All of this should, in theory, mean there is an ample supply of eager, capable engineers ready for hire.

But in their feverish pursuit of artificial-intelligence supremacy, employers say there aren’t enough people with the most in-demand skills. The few perceived as AI savants can command multimillion-dollar pay packages. On a second tier of AI savvy, workers can rake in close to $1 million a year .

Landing a job is tough for most everyone else.

Frustrated job seekers contend businesses could expand the AI talent pipeline with a little imagination. The argument is companies should accept that relatively few people have AI-specific experience because the technology is so new. They ought to focus on identifying candidates with transferable skills and let those people learn on the job.

Often, though, companies seem to hold out for dream candidates with deep backgrounds in machine learning. Many AI-related roles go unfilled for weeks or months—or get taken off job boards only to be reposted soon after.

Playing a different game

It is difficult to define what makes an AI all-star, but I’m sorry to report that it’s probably not whatever you’re doing.

Maybe you’re learning how to work more efficiently with the aid of ChatGPT and its robotic brethren. Perhaps you’re taking one of those innumerable AI certificate courses.

You might as well be playing pickup basketball at your local YMCA in hopes of being signed by the Los Angeles Lakers. The AI minds that companies truly covet are almost as rare as professional athletes.

“We’re talking about hundreds of people in the world, at the most,” says Cristóbal Valenzuela, chief executive of Runway, which makes AI image and video tools.

He describes it like this: Picture an AI model as a machine with 1,000 dials. The goal is to train the machine to detect patterns and predict outcomes. To do this, you have to feed it reams of data and know which dials to adjust—and by how much.

The universe of people with the right touch is confined to those with uncanny intuition, genius-level smarts or the foresight (possibly luck) to go into AI many years ago, before it was all the rage.

As a venture-backed startup with about 120 employees, Runway doesn’t necessarily vie with Silicon Valley giants for the AI job market’s version of LeBron James. But when I spoke with Valenzuela recently, his company was advertising base salaries of up to $440,000 for an engineering manager and $490,000 for a director of machine learning.

A job listing like one of these might attract 2,000 applicants in a week, Valenzuela says, and there is a decent chance he won’t pick any of them. A lot of people who claim to be AI literate merely produce “workslop”—generic, low-quality material. He spends a lot of time reading academic journals and browsing GitHub portfolios, and recruiting people whose work impresses him.

In addition to an uncommon skill set, companies trying to win in the hypercompetitive AI arena are scouting for commitment bordering on fanaticism .

Daniel Park is seeking three new members for his nine-person startup. He says he will wait a year or longer if that’s what it takes to fill roles with advertised base salaries of up to $500,000.

He’s looking for “prodigies” willing to work seven days a week. Much of the team lives together in a six-bedroom house in San Francisco.

If this sounds like a lonely existence, Park’s team members may be able to solve their own problem. His company, Pickle, aims to develop personalised AI companions akin to Tony Stark’s Jarvis in “Iron Man.”

Overlooked

James Strawn wasn’t an AI early adopter, and the father of two teenagers doesn’t want to sacrifice his personal life for a job. He is beginning to wonder whether there is still a place for people like him in the tech sector.

He was laid off over the summer after 25 years at Adobe , where he was a senior software quality-assurance engineer. Strawn, 55, started as a contractor and recalls his hiring as a leap of faith by the company.

He had been an artist and graphic designer. The managers who interviewed him figured he could use that background to help make Illustrator and other Adobe software more user-friendly.

Looking for work now, he doesn’t see the same willingness by companies to take a chance on someone whose résumé isn’t a perfect match to the job description. He’s had one interview since his layoff.

“I always thought my years of experience at a high-profile company would at least be enough to get me interviews where I could explain how I could contribute,” says Strawn, who is taking foundational AI courses. “It’s just not like that.”

The trouble for people starting out in AI—whether recent grads or job switchers like Strawn—is that companies see them as a dime a dozen.

“There’s this AI arms race, and the fact of the matter is entry-level people aren’t going to help you win it,” says Matt Massucci, CEO of the tech recruiting firm Hirewell. “There’s this concept of the 10x engineer—the one engineer who can do the work of 10. That’s what companies are really leaning into and paying for.”

He adds that companies can automate some low-level engineering tasks, which frees up more money to throw at high-end talent.

It’s a dynamic that creates a few handsomely paid haves and a lot more have-nots.



MOST POPULAR

A divide has opened in the tech job market between those with artificial-intelligence skills and everyone else.

A 30-metre masterpiece unveiled in Monaco brings Lamborghini’s supercar drama to the high seas, powered by 7,600 horsepower and unmistakable Italian design.

Related Stories
Money
Murdoch Family Settles Battle Over Trust
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG 09/09/2025
Money
What We Know About America’s Billionaires: 1,135 and Counting
By INTI PACHECO & THEO FRANCIS 04/09/2025
Money
REVEALED: WHAT DEFINES LUXURY & QUALITY OF LIFE AROUND THE WORLD
By Nina Hendy 02/09/2025
Murdoch Family Settles Battle Over Trust

Rupert Murdoch has reached a deal with his children that will pass control of his media assets to his eldest son, Lachlan.

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
Tue, Sep 9, 2025 2 min

The Murdoch family has reached a deal to end its yearslong battle over control of its media empire.

Lachlan Murdoch is set to take control of his father’s media assets as part of an agreement announced Monday between the patriarch and his children. Lachlan will control all the votes in a new trust that will hold sizable stakes in Fox Corp. and News Corp once the deal is completed.

The Murdoch trust, which currently holds roughly 40% voting stakes in Fox and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp, was initially designed to give each of his four oldest children an equal voting share.

As part of the settlement announced Monday, Rupert Murdoch’s children James, Elisabeth and Prudence will give up their claims to the existing trust. They will instead receive new trusts with cash funded in part by sales of some of the existing trust’s Fox and News Corp stock.

The three children will also be subject to a long-term agreement preventing them from buying shares in the companies.

Fox and News Corp shares fell slightly in after market trading.

The new agreement caps a tumultuous succession drama atop media companies whose holdings include cable giant Fox News, major newspapers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia; digital real-estate companies and HarperCollins Publishers. It also brings to a close a conflict that potentially threatened the futures of both News Corp and Fox Corp.

Murdoch, 94 years old, had sought to amend the family trust to put control in the hands of Lachlan. James, Elisabeth and Prudence opposed the change.

Clockwise from top left: Lachlan Murdoch, James Murdoch, Prudence MacLeod and Elisabeth Murdoch arriving for a hearing in Nevada in September 2024.
Fred Greaves/Reuters

An acrimonious family battle has played out  largely behind closed doors and in sealed court  proceedings in recent years. Last December, a Nevada probate commissioner  ruled against  Murdoch’s efforts to amend terms of the trust and give control to Lachlan.

Murdoch sought the change, in part , because Lachlan is the one most aligned with his conservative political views as well as the best manager to run the companies.

New trusts will also be created for Lachlan, who is executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corp. and chair of News Corp, as well as the two children that Rupert Murdoch had with Wendi Deng. Grace and Chloe Murdoch are beneficiaries of the original trust .

A holding company owned by Lachlan, Grace and Chloe Murdoch’s new trusts will control about 36% of Fox and 33% of News Corp.

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had no comment beyond the announcement. A spokesman for Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod declined to comment. Deng and a representative for James Murdoch couldn’t be reached for comment.

A spokesman for Anna dePeyster, mother of Elisabeth, James and Lachlan, declined to comment.

MOST POPULAR

On October 2, acclaimed chef Dan Arnold will host an exclusive evening, unveiling a Michelin-inspired menu in a rare masterclass of food, storytelling and flavour.

In the remote waters of Indonesia’s Anambas Islands, Bawah Reserve is redefining what it means to blend barefoot luxury with environmental stewardship.

Related Stories
Property
PORT DOUGLAS ICON LISTS $7M LUXURY VILLA
By Kirsten Craze 25/07/2025
Property
Where to Invest in 2025: Top-Performing Suburbs in Australia’s Property Market
By Staff Writer 12/08/2025
Lifestyle
LAMBORGHINI TAKES TO THE WATER WITH TECNOMAR 101FT SUPERYACHT
By Jeni O'Dowd 24/09/2025
0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop